We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence. Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover.
How We Make Money.
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you.
At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict , this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here’s an explanation for .
Editorial Integrity
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.
Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.
How We Make Money
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
This year the problem is tax fraud. But it’s not what you might think.
The Internal Revenue Service has implemented a new tax refund fraud detection system. Basically, the agency has added screening mechanisms to make sure that the refunds go to rightful owners.
But the fine-tuning of the safeguards has slowed down the issuance of legitimate refunds.
At the beginning of the 2012 filing season, the IRS encouraged ratepayers to e-file and have their refunds directly deposited because that money could be in taxpayer hands (or bank accounts) in as few as 10 days. Now add seven or so days to that.
But, says the IRS, “the vast majority of taxpayers can still continue to expect to receive their refunds in a timely fashion.”
Once the system checks and adjustments are completed, then refunds should return to their quicker delivery schedule.
While IRS efforts are to make sure that criminals don’t get their hands on tax refunds, that goal is little comfort to folks anxiously awaiting their tax cash. Maybe they’ll consider adjusting withholding this year so they won’t have to wait on Uncle Sam next filing season.
Have you filed your return? Have you received your refund or are you still waiting for it?
Get the latest tax news and filing tips by subscribing to Bankrate’s free tax newsletters. You can sign up to get a Daily Tax Tip. Or if you prefer a more consolidated collection, subscribe to the Weekly Tax Tip newsletter. Or sign up for both.
Share